The Sawyer County Fair, that is. And am I glad. After weeks of stress in the office and then the busyness of the weekend, I don't think I could have taken one more day of heat, volunteering, or dirt! :-) But we had a great time. Tiring. But great. As usual, we camped there for 4 days, but this is the first year Michael has been able to join us. I had to work the Fair office part of the weekend, but I did get out to enjoy a lot of it. We are all 4-H mom's as well in the office, so we take turns getting out to watch our kids judging.
The Fair installed something new this year, which I think a lot of Fairs do, but we went to Face-to-Face judging. That means you have to take every exhibit in front of the judge and answer her/his questions. We've always done it with the animals, but now they've started it with the rest of the categories. The kids were nervous (although I'm not sure why. They've showed their animals in front of the crowds for a few years now) but they got through it great. And guess what? Taylor took her very first Best of Show award!!!! We were so proud of her. She started an ivy plant from a cutting off her leaders plant and has been training it into a topiary. It got the purple ribbon! I will try to get a picture of her on the website.
As far as the Hershey's contest? Well, let's just say the kids did a lot better than I did. They both got blues on their baking entries, but in the contest... I got a 4th on my chocolate cake, and Nick got a 4th on his chocolate cookies but Taylor got a 3rd on her chocolate brownies and qualified for one of the prizes! She was a gracious winner, Nick and I were happy for her. (She's going down next year.)
The kids were smart and bought themselves a few half/price carnival wristbands off the local radio auction before the Fair. So the kids rode the rides, we all enjoyed the shows, loved all the bands and visited with many friends. All in all the kids accumulated 18 Blues (1st), 12 Reds (2nd), 1 White (3rd) and 2 Pinks (4th). OH YEAH - I got a Blue Ribbon on one of my quilts! YEAH!!!. I was very happy. Guess I sew better than I bake. :-( And I also took a close 2nd in the Veggie Races. hee hee. Now THAT was a blast. I'll tell you all about it some day. ;-) Our family also managed to get some volunteer hours in at the 4-H Ice Cream booth, and then at the Music Boosters Food Booth. Talk about hot! Working a kitchen in the summer heat. Sheesh.
Sunday evening didn't come too soon, however. We packed up the camper and our exhibits, and headed home for the cool shores of our beautiful river. Unfortunately I had many hours of data entry ahead of me because I had to get the publicity report in to the papers by noon Monday. My eyes were very blurry by the time I got to bed.
So I think that wraps up the highlights. If I think of anything else, I'll let you know.
A big Congrats to my goddaughter Ashley who did very well at her Fair also. My sister Cindy said she put in A LOT of time on her exhibits and deserved all her blues. Way to go Ashley - we're proud of you!
Until next time!
